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Shaman
:For related articles, see Category:Shamans. The Shaman (for correct spelling and more on the word, see Shaman Spelling) is a healer - warrior - mage hybrid class, and as such, Shamans are considered one of the most versatile classes in the game. They are designed to enhance all parts of a party while not being particularly focused on any one aspect of the game. Depending upon how players choose to customize their character's talent points, they can specialize in offensive spellcasting, melee combat, or healing. Their primary support buffs come in the form of stationary totems, which when placed on the ground by the shaman, provide various benefits to party members, or offensive versus enemies within a totem's 20-yard (30 with talents) radius. The Shaman class was originally only available to three of the Horde races: Tauren, Orcs, and Trolls. Designed as a counterpart to the Paladin, the Shaman class was originally unavailable to the Alliance. This was said to create much trouble in developing both classes since they needed to be balanced against each other. The release of the Burning Crusade expansion introduced the Shaman to the Alliance through the Draenei (while Horde got access to the Blood Elf Paladin), thus making it possible for both classes to be developed independent of each other. In parties, Shamans make the quintessential fifth member, supplementing the other members with off-healing and totem buffs while adding intermittent magic or melee damage. Shamans have the ability to resurrect themselves once per hour (which can be reduced with talent points to once every 40 minutes) using their Reincarnation ability. In addition to its uses within a fight, this, in combination with their ability to resurrect other players, makes Shamans a viable utility for wipe recovery. Background Shamans are spiritual visionaries of tribes and clans. These gifted healers can see into the world of spirits and communicate with creatures invisible to eyes of normal beings. They are beset by visions of the future and use their sight to guide their people through troubled times. Although the shaman may seem wise and serene at first glance, he is a formidable foe; and when angered, his wrath is as fierce as those who have a connection to Eternals or nature. History Shamans have been around since the sapient races first discovered the power of nature. On Draenor, now shattered Outland, the Orcs were shamanic; on Azeroth, Trolls and Tauren were shamanic. Though shamanism on Azeroth flourished and still continues to, shamanism on Draenor was all but extinct by the time of the great crossing of the Horde onto Azeroth via the Dark Portal. The greatest and yet some of the most vilified Orcs were once shaman; Drek'Thar, Ner'zhul, and Gul'dan were all shamans. However, Kil'jaeden, current lord over the Burning Legion, distorted the shaman's connection with their spirits in the sacred mountain of Oshu'gun, himself taking on the form of the shaman's ancestors to convince the shaman (who held much political sway in the orcish culture) that the Draenei were the enemy. The ensuing massacres upon several Draenei hunting parties offended the spirits, who eventually denied the shaman their powers. All was set for the transition. Cut off from their elemental powers, the former shaman turned to the more efficient and masterful powers of the Burning Legion, becoming warlocks. Though many tried to hang onto their roots, it was impossible. Even Drek'Thar was sucked into warlock magic, though he later repented and to this day has never forgiven himself for the acceptance of the perversion that plague himself and the orc race to this day. Ner'zhul, too, reverted to dark magic, though his power was used to escape Draenor and hide from Kil'jaeden. Shamanism in the orcs died until Thrall, the son of the deceased Durotan, chieftain of the Frostwolf clan, grabbed hold of the reins of Warchief of the New Horde ushering in a new generation of shamanism and outlawing the dark magic of the Burning Legion. Shamanism is now at its peak, as the New Horde itself is led by a shaman of great power in the new orcish kingdom of Durotar. Races The Shaman class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Draenei Horde * Orcs * Trolls * Tauren *Until Burning Crusade, the Shaman class was exclusive to Horde, as the Paladins were exclusive to Alliance. The balance of power has been partially upheld, however; only one Alliance race can play shamans, just as only one Horde race can play as Paladins. *Each Race has its own distinct advantage, no matter its class; consequently, many players who wish to play shamans factor in the advantages and abilities of the various races when starting their characters. Some prefer Tauren for their Warstomp racial ability, as Shamans themselves do not possess any ability to stun. Others prefer Orcs as they have a large chance to resist stuns, which is extremely helpful versus a rogue, as well as against a shadow priest; likewise, the Orcs' Blood Fury ability can be very useful for a shaman because they get a bonus to both their melee attacks and spell damage. Both of these abilities are very useful in PvP. Still others enjoy playing Trolls because of their Regeneration and Berserking powers, and the Beast Slaying bonus which can allow them to level more quickly. Players looking for a boost in healing for PvE or PvP may find that the Draenei's usable racial ability, Gift of the Naaru is an effective heal over time spell that can be cast on oneself or on another player. In the end, the choice of race is up to the player, and often comes down to a matter of aesthetics more than anything else. As long as the player enjoys the race they have chosen, many will simply ignore the mathematics. Talent trees shaman.]] Elemental The Elemental tree focuses on the Shaman's spellcasting ability, in the form of offensive totems (fire totems), spells, and 'shocks' (instant-cast spells of various elements). One of the major boons of this tree is to decrease the mana cost and casting time of offensive spells and totems while increasing their damage and critical strike chance. The seventh tier ability is Elemental Mastery, a spell usable every three minutes that guarantees a mana-free critical hit on the Shaman's next offensive spell. Elemental greatly improves the damage output of a shaman's magical offense. This works well in PvP and for soloing, though some argue it is less effective in end-game raids. In 2.0, Elemental Shamans received the option of training Totem of Wrath, a totem for partying that increases your whole party's critical strike and hit chance with spells by 3%. Enhancement The Enhancement tree focuses on the Shaman's ability to cast timed enchants on their own weapons, and expands on their melee ability in general as well. This is a very appealing tree to lower-level shamans because of the 5% mana increase, reduced cast time on their travel spell, Ghost Wolf, and the ability to dual-wield weapons. At later levels, Enhancement specialized Shamans can deal large amounts of melee damage, equaling and sometimes even surpassing that of a Warrior or Rogue, though the lack of a threat-reducing ability can make it difficult to manage aggro. One of the seventh tier abilities is Stormstrike, which grants an attack with both weapons and increases the damage of the next two Nature spells on the target by 20%. Combined with other abilities to gain extra strikes, particularly Windfury Weapon, Stormstrike can be used to great effect. Enhancement greatly reduces PvP survivability, in large part due to having to be up close in order to deal damage, though it offers significant improvement for the shaman's melee damage output. With the release of 2.0, Shamans are now able to dual wield weapons through this tree. Restoration The Restoration tree focuses on the Shaman's healing capability, reducing the casting time and mana cost of healing spells and totems, while increasing their effectiveness. Shamans specced in Restoration are quite useful in end-game parties as effective healers, buffers, and backup casters. The end-tree talent in the Restoration tree is the Earth Shield, which is a shield with ten charges that can be self-cast as well as placed on party member, which heals the user upon being struck once every few seconds for an amount that can crit and is affected by the shaman's +healing and +spell critical strike. Restoration greatly enhances shaman contribution to group/raid PvE content, but severely limits a shaman's damage output. With the new changes (as of the 2.0.1 patch) deep restoration has become a very viable PvP spec because of the new shaman spell Earth Shield as well as Nature's Guardian, which has a chance to heal the shaman for 10% of the shaman's total health when the shaman's health is reduced to below 30% by a damaging attack. Equipment Shamans wear leather armor up until level 40, at which time they gain the ability to wear mail armor. Because of this, many shamans take up the leatherworking profession, which can make certain mail armor around the time they get the ability to wear it. Additionally, the Dragonscale Leatherworking specialization can make several mail armor items with stat bonuses that are very beneficial to the shaman class. Shaman can use one-handed maces with shields and staves by default, and can train daggers, fist weapons, and one-handed axes at a weapon master. In addition, since patch 2.3 shamans can learn to wield two-handed axes and maces by visiting a trainer, and, post patch 2.0, to Dual Wield. After reaching level 40, a Shaman can learn to wear Mail armor from their trainer. For Shaman casters, the Turtle Scale Mail available from Leatherworkers is good, other items such as the Chain of the Scarlet Crusade are better for melee Shamans. The Shaman's level 60-70 sets are The Elements (Dungeon 1), The Five Thunders (Dungeon 2) and Tidefury Raiment (Dungeon 3a TBC) / Desolation Battlegear (Dungeon 3b TBC). The class-specific epic sets are The Earthfury (Tier 1), The Ten Storms (Tier 2), Stormcaller's Garb (Tier 2.5), The Earthshatterer (Tier 3), Cyclone Regalia (Tier 4 TBC), Cataclysm Armor (Tier 5 TBC) and Skyshatter Armor (Tier 6 TBC). The 20-man raid sets are Zandalar Augur's Regalia (Zul'Gurub) and Gift of the Gathering Storm (Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj). Pre-Tier 4 sets only benefit Shaman casters, as yet there are no dedicated Enhancement sets which directly benefit melee Shamans before Tier 4. As a result of this many pre-60 Shamans use non-class-bound mail items which give melee critical strike bonuses, as well as attack power and agility bonuses. On Tuesday November 13, patch 2.3 was released, and with it one of the most odd bugs to be released, Tier 6 costed no mark, but Blizzard quickly fixed it it is unknown wether people got to keep the tier or not. ;See also: :BC_healing_equipment_(mail) :Shaman Tactics :Formula:Mana regen & Shields Attributes See the main article Attributes. This breaks down specifically for shamans as follows http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-shaman&t=36420&tmp=1#post36420: *At level 70, it takes 25 agility to gain 1% to critical strike chance. *At level 70, it takes 22 critical strike rating to gain 1% to critical strike chance. *Your level's worth of agility will increase your chance to dodge by about 3% (e.g., +60 agility will give a level 60 shaman +3% to dodge). *Every point of strength provides 2 melee attack power (e.g., +70 strength will give any shaman +140 AP). ** This means that every 7 strength provides 1 additional damage per second (e.g., +70 strength will give any shaman +10 DPS). *Every point of strength increases the amount of damage you block with a shield. *Every point of intellect adds 15 mana (MP). *Your level's worth of intellect will increase your chance to crit with spells by about 1% (e.g., +60 intellect will give a level 60 shaman +1% to crit with spells; at level 70 it takes +80 int.) *Every point of stamina adds 10 health (HP). *Every 10 points of spirit regenerates 1 mana per second. This can also be described as "five spirit yields 1 mana per tick" or "2 spirit restores 1 mana per five seconds" (MP5). See also Formulas:Mana Regen or Formula:Mana regen & Shields *Every 18 spirit increases health regeneration by 1 health per second (i.e., 9 spirit restores 1 point of health per tick). Abilities Totems Totems are unique to the Shaman, and must be obtained by completing certain quests. A shaman can use one of each elemental type at any one time. Once a totem is put down, it cannot be moved - but a new totem can always be used to replace it if it requires the same Elemental Totem to cast it. As of the recent patch the spell 'Totemic Call' (available at level 30) shamans can instantly remove all of their totems for no mana and receive 25% of the mana spent on the totems back. *See the Shaman Totems page for complete list of totems, and additional details. Spells Shaman spells include direct damage spells, heals, and weapon buffs among others. Their spells are mostly based on the elements. *See the Shaman Spells page for a complete list of spells and additional details. *See Thottbot.com's Shaman page for more info on spells. Talents Shaman Talents are split into 3 categories: * Elemental - improvements in offensive spells and offensive totems. * Enhancement - improvements in melee related skills and enhancement totems. * Restoration - improvements in healing and restoration totems. Talent builders can be found at Official Blizzard site, WoW Den's Talent Calculator, WorldofWar.se, WoW Vault, ThottBot, Merciless, Wowhead. *See the shaman talents page for further details. Weapons ish Shaman.]] Starting *Maces (1-handed) *Staves (2-handed) *Shields (off-hand) Trainable *Daggers (1-handed) *Fist Weapons (1-handed) *Axes (1-handed) *Maces (2-handed) *Axes (2-handed) The previous two were originally 10-point talents in Enhancement and were replaced with Shamanistic Focus in Patch 2.3 Talent-based Enhancements *Offhand weapons ("Dual-wielding") Can't Use *Swords (1-handed or 2-handed) *Polearms *Ranged weapons (wands, bows, throwing weapons, crossbows, guns) '' Note: the inability of Shamans to use ranged weapons makes the Troll's Throwing Weapon Specialization and Bow Specialization racial traits worthless for them.'' * See also: Weapons & Armor * See also: Shaman Sets End-Game Expectations Totems are a major part of the end game and knowing what totems will benefit the Shaman's group members best in different situations is all part of the strategy involved in playing a Shaman. With the versatility that comes with a Shaman you will always be the one patching up on various issues that your group might run into. If your party runs into an encounter which is very DPS heavy, you will find yourself supporting DPS, occasionally throwing in a Heal if needed. The same goes for encounters that require lots of healing. A Shaman's role in parties and raids will vary depending on how they choose to spend their talent points, as some of the Shaman's versatility is diminished if they spec heavily into one tree. For example, a Shaman who has specced Enhancement may have problems supporting the healing needs of a party, due to the lack of crucial intellect/+healing/damage bonuses on their gear which Restoration requires, but will greatly enhance melee group DPS in raids (warriors, rogues). On the other hand a Restoration Shaman have very little benefit from going melee due to the lack of +hit/+Attack Power. Whereas Elemental shamans can cast ranged DPS and still cast the occasional support heal, still getting the bonuses (in most cases) from +heal/+spell damage. Specialization is all a matter of preference. Some Shamans tend to go Restoration, some Elemental, and others Enhancement. No matter which tree they follow, there are a lot of abilities that will benefit raid/party DPS, protection and healing. Patch 2.0 (just prior to Burning Crusade) added such talents as Totem of Wrath, and Unleashed Rage (depending on whatever you wish to go Melee or Caster Shaman), so although you may not be the number one DPS class or number one healing class, your choice of playstyle and talents will greatly benefit the classes who do heavy DPS and/or heals, leading to an overall successful achievement in the end. It's also important for a Shaman to know their limitations. Shamans have no crowd control or aggro wipe abilities, so survival often depends on caution and attentiveness. Knowing when to back off of dps, put up a shield, pop the Earth Elemental or Frost Shock kite an add can mean the difference between a successful raid and a series of wipes. *Remember that the beauty of the shaman is its versatility, and even though you tend to go one way with talents, remember that you still have access to the rest of your spells and abilities. See Also *See Starting a Shaman for some advice when starting out. *See Shaman Tactics for advice on playstyle. *See the Shaman FAQ for the answers to many common questions. *See Shamanism and Nature Worship to learn more about the shamans' beliefs. *See List of Shamans for named shamans from lore and in-game. *See Shaman races for shamans by race. *Spirit to see how it changes your mana regeneration and what are your base values. *Spell Damage Coefficients External links *WoW Forums Shaman Discussion *Shammies Haven - Unofficial website and forum for Shaman Class *Open Shaman Discussion (Troll Free) *Monakara's Guide to Shamans *TenTonHammer's Shaman Guide *Totem Talk - weekly shaman feature at WoW Insider *Enhancement Shaman TheoryCraft Elitist Jerks Enhancement Shaman TheoryCraft page ---- Category:Classes Category:WoW Classes Category:Shamans Category:Shaman Abilities